Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~
Chapter 88: Armored Ant Nest (2)

Chapter 88: Armored Ant Nest (2)

It’s been two months since I started attacking the Armored Ant Nest. I still haven’t managed to clear the first Armored Ant Nest.

“Oh, boy, you’re a force to be reckoned with.”

“Thank you.”

I am currently in the village built at the foot of the White Dragon Mountains, where Mithril ore is smelted into Mithril in a furnace.

I was hauling lumber with a group of men in the rather bleak village.

The reason why I’m here is because I’ve been trying to clean up the over 1,000 Armored Ants, killing over 200 Ants a day, but I couldn’t finish them even after a month. I hunted two days a week for five weeks a month, so I must have killed over 2000 Armored Ants in a month.

However, they still continued to spring up. I’d heard that an Armored Ant’s Nest contains about 1,000 Ants, but this Nest was so large that there might be 3,000 or 5,000 of them.

I could have guessed that it was actually a rather large Nest, but there was one thing that bothered me: the next time I went to the Nest, the Armored Ants that I had killed the last time were gone. Could it be that the dead Armored Ants were being used as nourishment for new Armored Ants? Armored Ants feed on Armored Ants, and Armored Ants continue to be born. It’s just horrible.

So, to prevent the Armored Ants from feeding on new Armored Ants, I should collect the Armored Ants we killed. The endless Armored Ants are in the way, and I can’t collect magic stones. The experience efficiency is the greatest this way, but there is no monetary reward.

So I consulted the Butler. According to the Knight Commander, I found out that he had been quite flexible in the past, so I asked him for help.

I wanted to take hunting duty day and my holiday in a row and stay out.

The Nest of Armored Ants in the White Dragon Mountains is quite far away, even for me, who has high [Agility] through levels and blessings. This doesn’t leave enough time for hunting. I asked him if it would be possible to hunt two days in a row, switching the current schedule of serving, hunting, and holiday.

Before change: Manservant, Manservant, Hunting Duty, Manservant, Manservant, Holiday

After change:  Manservant, Manservant, Manservant, Manservant, Holiday, Hunting Duty

The Butler gave me a difficult look when I told him I was going to stay overnight. He wanted to refuse me, so I asked him if I could help out in the village smelting Mithril, and he agreed.

According to the head manservant, Rickel, staying out overnight is basically forbidden. He said, “How did you get the permission?” Apparently, I was pushing it pretty hard.

It was worth it to spend a night in this village and attack the Armored Ants two days in a row, even if I had to spend a few hours helping out in the village at the foot of the White Dragon Mountains.

I was able to increase the number of Armored Ants killed from 200 per day to 300 per day.

In the middle of April, I started to see a change in the Armored Ant’s Nest after two consecutive days of attack with an overnight stay in a village at the foot of the White Dragon Mountains.

After I finished helping out in the village at the foot of the White Dragon Mountains by carrying logs, I was killing Armored Ants that came out of the Nest as usual, when an unprecedented change occurred.

The Armored Ants coming out of the Nest finally stopped.

(Finally! I’ve finally won! Yeah!)

A certain number of Armored Ants were always springing up outside, but when they killed them as before, no new Armored Ants appeared.

(This is the time to attack. What should I do?)

There was a huge hole in the ground, three meters long and wide.

(I’ve brought some torches and magical tools for light, but I should scout with my summons first.)

I wanted to check the condition of the inside of the Nest. There should be Queen Armored Ant inside, so I need to replace out where she is in the Nest.

I need to investigate the hole.

(Now, should I send Chappy down the hole? No, it’ll be dark, so maybe Hollow?)

I decided to send Hollow instead of G-rank Bird, Chappy since Hollow has the special skill [Night Vision].

(Hmm, Chappy hasn’t done his job yet.)

As the <Summon> level increases, more and more useful skills such as <Sharing> will be added. I’m trying to replace out what kind of role all of my summons can play.

I replace Chappy’s special skill [Voice Imitation] to be quite useful. Especially when it involves <Sharing>, the range of uses is quite wide.

Voice Imitation’s Ability

-It can imitate people’s voices.

Conditions for Voice Imitation

-I need to listen to the voice of the target.

-I need to know the name of the target.

When there was no <Sharing>, I had to specify what I wanted to say and who I wanted to imitate within 50 meters. It was difficult to use, but with <Sharing>, the usefulness of this skill has increased dramatically.

The object and content of the voice can now be directed at all times, and the range is virtually infinite. The possibilities have expanded considerably, but so far I haven’t found a use for it.

While I was thinking about this, Hollow continued to move forward through the hole.

(It’s pretty big here. I can’t scout with just one.)

Hollow went deeper and deeper. It seemed to be quite a labyrinth at the bottom, with over a thousand of those huge Armored Ants living there. The tunnel continues on forever, branching off several times.

This was an opportunity to take down the Queen Armored Ant and three more Hollows entered the Nest.

(I see, so this is a small room. I’ve been hit!

I used four Hollows to scout the labyrinth-like Nest, while I transcribed the map of the Nest onto my Grimoire. I reached a dead end with a small room that seemed to have split off at some point.

As I infiltrated, the Armored Ants were not entirely absent. One of the Hollows was killed when it was caught in the jaws of an Armored Ant in a small room.

(GUNNNU, I’m not giving up. Well…)

It turned out that the Armored Ants were still in the Nest. I could see about three of them before the Hollow was killed, so it looks like there are a good number of them.

I need to think of a strategy to capture the Nest.

(TN: Here to the end of the chapter was so confusing. If you don’t understand something please mention in the comments.)

(Totoro, please check this part carefully)

I instructed the three Hollows in the labyrinth to stop scouting, and summoned three Bears, one Hollow and used <Sharing> on them.

I sent the three Hollows to scout ahead to create a strategy map. If they get killed, I re-summoned them. They go through the tunnel that gently descends from the place where they were killed. I wanted to grasp the full map of this Nest.

Then, I marked the places where the Armored Ants were and were killed on the strategy map that I was making in my Grimoire. I sent the squad of three Bears and a Hollow into the marked areas. I killed any Armored Ants that were in the small rooms and if there are any larvae in the small room, I kill them all too.

Bears couldn’t see anything in the pitch-black tunnel that does not allow light to pass through. I, who was using <Sharing> on them, couldn’t see anything either. I instructed the Bears based on what I saw from Hollow who was with the Bear group.

The battle in the hole began in the morning, but it was now past noon. Things were going well when I first started to make progress, but the Armored Ants were not taking it lying down.

(Gosh, I’m trapped again.)

The Armored Ants were almost as big as the hole. Since the hole and the Armored Ant were almost the same size, I couldn’t go past them when an Armored Ant was there.

If I proceed to the dead end and try to return, I would replace Armored Ants. I wouldn’t be able to defeat them with just Hollow, so I would be completely trapped.

In those cases, I returned the Hollow to the card at once. When I return a summon to it’s card, it is automatically stored in the holder, so I can summon it again and it can re-enter the hole.

Naturally, the Armored Ants were also in the passageway. Whether they were in the passageway or in the small room, they were defeated by Bears. Even after killing them, the Armored Ants would still be in the way and Bear wouldn’t be able to move on, so I instructed them to pull or push their crushed heads as handles to move their bodies. It is necessary to skillfully move them out of the way in small rooms and dead ends so that my summons could continue.

(I feel like I’m working on a puzzle. Is this what labyrinth-building strategy is all about?)

Fill in the map, defeat the Armored Ant, and move the defeated Armored Ant so that you can move on. It feels like I’m playing some kind of puzzle game.

When I was Kenichi in my previous life, there was a kind of mini-game in a video game. For some reason, even though it was an adventure fantasy, it’s mini-games included quiz games and backgammon. The Armored Ant’s Nest strategy felt similar to that.

Finally, in the late evening, a Hollow found the biggest Armored Ant at the bottom of the Nest.